A problem with lichess

[JustinHorton]

I am having a problem with lichess that is causing me a certain amount of stress and as I have not so far succeeded in getting any answers out of lichess (nor do I even know whether it is supposed to be happening, oor a bug on my account) I thought I'd raise it here.

Lichess offer the user, when setting up a game, the option of limiting opponents to a stated range of ratings. I take advantage of that option - or rather, try to - and have stated preferences, differing according to whether I want to play a 5+4 blitz game or a 7+5 rapid game, my two habitual game speeds. (I won't be discussing what those ranges are, because ir's nobody's business - just to state that lichess offer them.)

Lichess also, quite properly, ask users to play as many of the accepted games as possible, i.e. not to abort many games, before starting, because they don't like the look of the particular opponent who's joined the game. All this I understand and accept.

However, what's been happening is that opponents have kept arriving at the games I've set up who have been outside the range I've requested. And I've refused these opponents, because they're not what I asked for. And I have been penalised, to an increasing degree, as a result - so for instance this afternoon, I aborted a game against such an opponent and am now barred for two hours.

This is making me tear my hair out, and the major reason that is is doing so is that althoygh I have asked, I cannot find out whether or nor this is deliberate policy - that is, whether

(a) lichess really expect you to play opponents outside the requested range, even though they themselves have offered the option of restricting your opponents - which seems absurd - or

(b) they don't, but this is happening because somehow my account is accepting unasked-for opponents and the lichess system doesn't realise that this is so, but just notes that I am turning down opponents and penalises me for it.

If it's (a) then that's fine - as long as I know! But if I don't know, then I am put in a position where, as far as I can see, lichess is stating that there are certain rules, bit is not sticking to them and is punishing me for it.

So I am just setting out what's happening here, partly to ask if anybody else has had a similar experience, partly in case anybody from lichess may see it and be interested. I cannot tell you how frustrating this is - it is a classic case of simply wanting to know what is actually happening and why.

(Incidentally I would be obliged to be spared replies along the lines of "why don't you just play everybody anyway", as it would explicitly avoid the issue and presumably we are offered the opportunity to restrict our range of opponents for a reason.)

[Joey Stewart]

I have had the blocking issue in the past, they used to be ridiculous and hand out timeout bans based on the number of games you lost on time (because apparently only checkmate or resignation is an acceptable way to lose a blitz game ...) but since lockdown It feels like they have lifted their Draconian measures and I haven't had anything like that happen for ages even though I still get the occasional passive aggressive message from them threatening me that I must stop losing on time.

I would guess in this instance it is because you are playing fairly rare time controls and there are simply not enough players looking for games in the rating range you want to play at so the pairing system has decided to shoehorn in much lower/higher rated players as the lesser of two evils. Maybe look for tournaments using those time limits instead so you can guarantee opponents or possibly try 10/5 or 5/3 as I believe those are a more widely used time control -even with the hundreds of thousands of players around I believe the vast majority stick strictly to 1/0, 3/0, 3/2, 5/0, 5/3 as the most popular time limits.

[Chris Goodall]

I would guess in this instance it is because you are playing fairly rare time controls and there are simply not enough players looking for games in the rating range you want to play at so the pairing system has decided to shoehorn in much lower/higher rated players as the lesser of two evils.

This. Based on a sample of 3.7m lichess games from September 2020, I estimate that about 1 game in 15,000 is between 1900+ players at a time control of 300+4. Out of 89.3m games in May, which has 31 days, that is about 200 such games per day.

If every game lasts (being generous) 15 minutes, those 200 games took 3,000 minutes. There are 1,440 minutes in a day, so there are on average 2 games being played at any instant between 1900+ players at 300+4, and one of those 4 people must hit "New Opponent" after their game instead of "Rematch" to be paired with you.

Remove the 1900+ rating requirement and about 1 in 700 games is played at 300+4. 30 games at any instant. In an arena of 60 players you will have 5-10 currently without an opponent.

[Jonathan Bryant]

However, what's been happening is that opponents have kept arriving at the games I've set up who have been outside the range I've requested.

I've had this a fair bit in the past. Not much recently that I can recall.

It's an oddity because you'd think it was a relatively easy thing to avoid. At least I'd think that.

I've not had it so much that I've had a ban though.


Unfortunately my experience of communicating - or attempting to -with lichess is not positive. It's strange they don't care about obvious cheats sometimes when they're quite happy to get on banning people for this.

Price you pay for a free server, I suppose.